Jumbo Stuffed Pasta Shells

Most of my family and friends know I'm an avid reader. My latest read is Sunrise on the Reaping, the new Hunger Games installment by Suzanne Collins. This isn't a book review blog, so I won't get into details, but the food descriptions (especially earlier on in the book) really caught my attention. As someone who cooks and bakes, I'm always interested by the descriptions of food in books and how it can tie into the culture. Apparently, some of the recipes mentioned in Sunrise on the Reaping are common in Appalachia. All of a sudden, I'm hungry for bean and ham hock soup, and I want to try making an apple stack cake! Should I maybe make a side blog where I cook recipes from the books I read? Could be interesting.

When preparing these jumbo stuffed pasta shells, I realized that stuffing pasta shells is kind of like making ravioli, just easier! The main reason I say this is because it takes less time. Like ravioli, you can also experiment with different stuffings. I happened to have a lot of spinach on hand, so I decided to prepare a spinach filling.

Ingredients:

• 6 oz. jumbo shell pasta (brand doesn't matter)

• 16 oz. small curd cottage cheese

• about 2 cups cooked spinach, drain

• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

• 1 large egg

• 1 tsp Italian seasoning

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp pepper

• a jar of red pasta sauce (about 24 oz.)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cook the pasta shells until done. Drain, then set aside.

Mix cottage cheese, spinach, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, egg, and seasonings together in a bowl. Transfer mixture into a piping bag or a Ziploc bag.

Take out an 8x8 dish (9x13 works too, especially if you have too many shells). Pour some of the marinara sauce into it (about 1/3 of the jar). Cut off a corner of the bag the filling is in and start filling the pasta shells. Place each shell into the baking dish. When all the shells have been stuffed, pour the remaining marinara sauce over the pasta. Sprinkle with more parmesan cheese if desired.

Cover dish with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes. Enjoy! This dish would go great with some garlic bread or a salad.